Trade: Good News! Bad News! Or Something

Trade data today was one of those outrageous sorts of crazy thing that happen lately, and yet causes no-one to blink an eye. We had a nearly 30% drop in the U.S. trade deficit, one of the largest percentage drops of all time, and yet it really didnâ€™t matter in some sense.

Why? Because both imports and exports tumbled too. There was a 12% (!) drop in imports — almost $25-billion, off the top. Admittedly, that was driven by both oil prices and declining consumer demand, but it was eye-popping. And exports fell too, but not on the same scale, with them tumbling a mere 6%.